Book Review: Optimize Your Immune System: Create Health and Resilience with a Kitchen Pharmacy by Marie Ruggles RD, CN + giveaway

Optimize Your Immune System: Create Health and Resilience with a Kitchen Pharmacy
by Marie Ruggles RD, CN
September 27, 2020
Genre: Heath/ Food/ Medical/ Immunology
Many people think that it’s normal to come down with an illness each year and, for some, two or three times a year. Yet researchers have proven that nutrition and lifestyle factors can boost your immune system.

Learn how to build a kitchen pharmacy of whole foods, superfoods and nutrients to provide a stable foundation for your health. And when you’re at an increased risk of infection, know what to do to derail a virus before it takes hold.

Follow this immune-boosting roadmap to a healthier diet, making you less prone to viral infections and more resilient after an illness.

In Optimize Your Immune System, you’ll read about the three phases of immune support.
Phase I: Everyday immune strengthening and care
Phase II: After exposure to an unhealthy person or environment
Phase III: Immune-boosting support to prevent an illness when you feel like you’re coming down with something

For each of these phases, Marie Ruggles, M.S., R.D., C.N., C.D.E., draws upon over forty years of experience within the wellness arena.

The book begins with her explaining how the immune system works and what it does. From there, she discusses the foods that help and hinder our immunity. She even gives a whole foods quick start guide for those who aren’t too certain where to start.

She also shares the concept of juice bathing, and how to minimize the fuss and mess of juicing while maximizing its benefit.

Optimize Your Immune System makes specific recommendations for how to fortify and stimulate your body’s natural defenses using a simple kitchen pharmacy, no matter which phase of immune support you are facing.

Diving deep, the book looks closely at whole foods, superfoods, nutrients and supplements, even giving specific product recommendations for those brands and products the author personally loves most.

The final chapter of the book pulls everything together in an easy-to-reference format sharing phase-specific recommendations, as well as how to eat more nutritious foods even if you’re on a limited budget.

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Marie Ruggles has written an easy to understand book helping people understand how to improve their health and build a strong immune system through the foods you eat. The book has a good format that makes it simple to refer back to for reference, and Ruggles also includes recommendations on the products or stores she uses, which helps you find some of the items.

One of the most beneficial things she discusses is processed foods. Processed food is something that has surfaced in the last sixty years or so and has had a significant impact on our health. Ruggles discusses how whole foods can improve already damaged cells and improve your health.

Her book includes chapters with meal ideas, ways to change up boring or repetitive dishes, vitamins, and minerals, to name a few. This book has so much beneficial information that I highly recommend this as a must-read for health improvement and making real-life changes.

Getting 5 sheep

Denise B

About the Author
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Marie Ruggle’s teaching focus is on coaching others to take back their power by developing a home inventory of natural wellness solutions. She is obsessed with searching for the healthiest products and bringing nutrition science (eating for prevention) into the kitchen by sharing easy hacks for getting real food on the table with minimal effort. Her background is in Nutrition & Public Health. She has a master’s degree from Columbia University where she started her career in research. She also has a certification in Essential Oil Safety and has been a Certified Diabetes Educator for many years.

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The Story Behind the Story: Author Liese Sherwood-Fabre: In Search of London’s Sherlock Holmes + giveaway

In Search of London’s Sherlock Holmes

Before we retired just before the pandemic, my husband worked as an international consultant, which required him to travel regularly to Oxford. By then, I was working on The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife and knew where I wanted to go when I joined him in London. I even arranged for a hotel not far from Baker Street to make it early to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. 

In 1990, John Aidiniantz purchased a Georgian townhouse at 239 Baker Street and opened the museum. For the next twelve years, he fought with the Abbey National Building Society at 221 Baker Street over who should receive the mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes (Abbey National had been answering the letters since the 1930s). Finally, Abbey National moved, and the Royal Mail agreed to deliver correspondence there. The staff still keeps it on the mantle, a penknife stuck through to hold it in place.

In most museums, there are “do not touch” signs everywhere. Because the items aren’t precious relics of an actual person, guests are able to handle and take photos with objects that would be off-limits in most museums. That includes posing in the chairs by the fireplace with a deerstalker borrowed for the occasion. It’s a full recreation of the flat, complete with water closet on an upper floor.

An additional 221B model exists in London at the Sherlock Holmes Pub. It holds a display of Holmes memorabilia collected for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and includes one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s desk and chair. You’re also able to enjoy a pint of Sherlock Holmes Ale or Waston’s Golden Ale.

There are other bits around town: markers where Sherlock and Watson first met, a statue of the great detective, and the Baker Street metro station is decorated with a Sherlock Holmes silhouette. Enough to keep a Sherlockian busy for more than a day.

To read more about Sherlock Holmes’ London address and other aspects of his life, check out Dr. Sherwood-Fabre’s series on “The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes.” Volume Three has just been released, and the first two are now available in eBook as a box set.

The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes: Essays on Victorian England
Box Set Volumes 1 & 2
by Liese Sherwood-Fabre 

November 16, 2020

179 pages

Genre: Non-Fiction 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories are full of everyday Victorian activities and events that send the twenty-first-century reader to consult their reference books. Few, for example, are intimately acquainted with the responsibilities of a country squire, the importance of gentlemen's clubs, or the intricacies of the Victorian monetary system.

These forty-eight short essays, gathered together from the first two volumes of "The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes" series, explore various aspects of life mentioned in the original stories. Readers gain modern-day insight into the nineteenth-century world. Untangle the complexities of inheritance, the Victorian wedding, and the treatment of brain fever. Discover the pleasures of the circus, the Turkish bath, and beekeeping. Such examinations bring deeper meaning and color to the adventures of the world's most famous consulting detective.

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The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes: Essays on Victorian England
Volume Three
by Liese Sherwood-Fabre 

November 16, 2020

What do "slop shops," "scissorizing," "agony aunts," and "foolscap" have in common?

These and other Victorian references appear throughout the original Sherlock Holmes tales. What was part of everyday existence to the Victorian has the modern day reader running to references books to discover its significance. These twenty-four short essays explore various aspects of life mentioned in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original Sherlock Holmes tales, providing modern-day insight into the nineteenth century world. Topics include:
• Violins
• Electric vs. Gas Lighting
• Scrapbooking
• Agony Columns
• The Agra Fort
• Cardboard
• Sound Recordings
• Telephones
• Jellyfish
• Rugby
• Brandy
• The Opera
• The Crown Jewels
• Yellow Fever
• Snakes
• Italian Political Organizations
• Banks
• Diabetes
• Pocket Watches
• Writing Paper
• Coroners
• Pawnshops
• Clothing
• Calling Cards
This collection also includes a bonus essay—"Evil Women: The Villainesses of the Canon," originally published in the Baker Street Journal.

“Be prepared to be enlightened and entertained!”
- Carole Nelson Douglas, Bestselling Author

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Liese Sherwood-Fabre has won awards for her thrillers, romance, and literary short stories, and NYT bestselling author Steve Berry describes her writing as "gimmick-free, old-fashioned storytelling."

In the second grade, she knew she was destined to write when she got an A+ for her story about Dick, Jane, and Sally's ruined picnic. After obtaining her PhD from Indiana University, she joined the federal government and had the opportunity to work and live internationally for more than fifteen years. She draws upon these experiences to endow her characters with deep conflicts and emotions.

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Wicked Salem: Exploring Lingering Lore and Legends by Sam Baltrusis + excerpt

WICKED SALEM PROFILE: THOMAS O’BRIEN VALLOR

“We have a problem with the way that most modern 'ghost hunters' are disrespectful toward the dead.”
—Thomas O’Brien Vallor, Salem Witch

Be sure to check out the 30-second book trailer at the bottom.

By Sam Baltrusis

When it comes to the twisted representations of the witch-on-broom stereotypes perpetuated by Salem’s tourism machine, Thomas O’Brien Vallor has seen it all. “I don't find it to be annoying or offensive like a lot of people do because I have seen the industry from the inside out,” the Salem-based Witch (capital W) told me.

It’s the ghost hunters on TV that really stir his cauldron.

He’s the first to point out why the city’s contemporary pagan population is wary of the typical “aggressive male approach” on programs like Ghost Adventures and formerly Ghost Hunters. “To a Witch, the paranormal is normal and the supernatural is natural,” Vallor said, paraphrasing a quote passed down by his elders.

Vallor contends that the paranormal personalities featured on television don’t respect those who have passed. “We believe that the dead are around us at all times so the idea of ‘ghosts’ as the souls of people who are trapped on Earth doesn’t align with our beliefs,” Vallor explained. "We have a problem with the way that most modern 'ghost hunters' are disrespectful toward the dead.”

As far as the ways paranormal investigators are being disrespectful, the Salem Witch Walk tour guide said it’s a long list. “First of all, they don't have the right intention in their heart,” Vallor said. “Some might not respect the true history of the area or understand who actually lived here or what happened here. They’ll needlessly focus on traumatic things and sensationalize people's personal lives,” he continued. “When a Witch communicates with the dead, it’s with the utmost respect.”

Vallor has a point.

For example, paranormal investigators wanted access to the city’s Witch House, the last structure standing in Salem with direct ties to the witch-trials hysteria of 1692. Home of judge Jonathan Corwin, a magistrate with the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which sent nineteen to the gallows, the Corwin House dates back to 1675 and is an icon of America’s tortured past.

Access to the house was denied for years. Members from the Park and Recreation Commission thought it would be in poor taste to investigate the Corwin dwelling. “We have to have respect for the gravity of the injustice that occurred in 1692,” responded board member Chris Burke. “This is sort of a touchy subject,” said Elizabeth Peterson, director of the house. “We want people to be aware that we’re not a Salem witch attraction.”

In 2011, the governing board apparently changed their minds and allowed the crew from the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures to set up an overnight lockdown. When Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin and Nick Groff walked into the Witch House, all hell broke loose.

“In broad daylight with [Witch House director] Elizabeth Peterson and talking to her, things got really weird,” Groff told the Boston Herald. “Zak was filming and the batteries on his wireless mic kept dying. There was some sort of energy causing his batteries to die. We felt something weird, felt cold and then the batteries died.”

The Ghost Adventures team fought for years to gain access to the historic property. “We’ve already captured a voice and we just stepped into the house to start talking about history,” Groff continued. “I think we’re going to be in for a long night of finding paranormal activity.”

The crew supposedly picked up a child humming and an EVP of Bridget Bishop, who named “Mary” as her accuser. She kept repeating the word “apple.” In Christian Day’s The Witches’ Book of the Dead, he claimed to have summoned Bishop’s spirit away from her usual post at the Lyceum. “I didn’t want anyone living or dead to steal the spotlight from the Witch House,” he wrote. “The team mentioned recording some strong activity on the second floor, but their machines really started to get going once we arrived. Real Witches are magnets for the dead,” he said, adding that he performed a necromantic blessing in the house, which included a blood offering.

Groff, who left Ghost Adventures 2014 and is now featured on Paranormal Lockdown, told me that the Essex Street haunt was a historical goldmine. “The location, the Witch House, is just absolutely awesome. To be able to walk back in time, regardless of the paranormal activity that’s actually occurring there, it’s just cool to step foot on those wood floors and experience the environment of what it could have been like,” he told me. “You’re almost stepping back in time. Whatever paranormal stuff that happens there is a plus to me. It’s a cool place.”

In hindsight, Peterson said she has mixed feelings about the investigation. “Personally, I was very uncomfortable doing it. I love this sort of thing, so it wasn’t the subject matter,” Peterson told me. “They were lovely kids, but I don’t think they were a good match for the house. When they were off camera, they were very different. When their camera started running out of batteries, they did pick up a child humming. My first response was shock. My second, as a mother, is that it saddens me that there may be a child’s spirit here that I wasn’t sensitive to or was unaware of in the house.”

Peterson believes the EVP captured on Ghost Adventures was questionable. However, she’s not saying the Witch House is free of residual energy. “There were eleven deaths in this house up until 1719,” she said. “Enormous amounts of human drama unfolded in these rooms. My son thinks he’s seen things, and I think I’ve heard things.”

When Wicked Salem questioned Vallor about Christian Day’s use of blood on Ghost Adventures, he bit back. “I don't think that Christian’s blood ritual was disrespectful at all,” Vallor said. “He has a lot of respect for Bridget Bishop and did a lot of work with her. If you think it's disrespectful, then you don’t have a misunderstanding of blood magic.”

As far as Salem’s “coven of commercialism” disrespecting its past, Vallor believes it’s an underlying tension that has existed for years. “When it comes to what most people consider to be commercial or touristy in Salem, I see it more related to the culture and image that the city has had for centuries,” he said. “We were the Witch City long before we were a tourist town.”

Along the way Salem transmogrified as a city known for its blood-stained history to a Halloween-themed mecca of magic. But how? In 1970, Laurie Cabot opened the city’s first “witch shop,” selling a few tools of the trade. Her underlying goal was to educate the public about modern witchcraft and dispel some of the misconceptions related to her path. Cabot flourished.

In response, Salem set up a bevy of “museums” to educate visitors, including the Witch Dungeon Museum and the Salem Witch Museum, while offering a few scares along the way. However, it wasn’t enough. So, entrepreneurs set up the Haunted Witch Village, which later became the Haunted Neighborhood at the Salem Wax Museum.

“People were walking away from Salem disappointed that they did not get the scare,” said Salem Wax Museum’s former spokesperson in North Shore Sunday. “Historically speaking, they were overly satisfied. But they weren’t coming here just for the history. They want a haunt—to get frightened out of their wits. So we’re going a different route. And there’s nothing historical about it.”

Of course, the Haunted Witch Village faced some controversy when it opened in October 1995. “I recently visited Salem because the witch trials were the only thing I remembered from high school history,” said a New York visitor, adding that he was confused “that a town would make a tourist trade out of this horrible event. These are disasters, you don’t celebrate them.”

The controversy quickly subsided and the Haunted Witch Village thrived. The debate, however, continued.

A similar backlash swept Salem in 2005 when TV Land decided to unveil a statue in Lappin Park of Elizabeth Montgomery’s character Samantha Stephens from the ’60s TV classic Bewitched. “It’s like TV Land going to Auschwitz and proposing to erect a statue of Colonel Klink,” said a former member of the Salem Historic District Commission. “Putting this statue in the park near the church where this all happened, it trivializes the execution of nineteen people.”

The statue was erected despite the minor backlash and has become an icon of sorts for the Witch City. Oddly, the statue’s hand is pointing in the direction of Proctor’s Ledge, the spot where innocent men and women were hanged for witchcraft in 1692.

Vallor said he didn’t come to Salem for tourism or witchcraft. However, he stuck around because he loved the city’s Halloween-year-round vibe. “I moved here as a teenager and went to Salem High School,” he said. “I hung around downtown for years before I worked in the tourism industry or even knew I was Witch.” He started giving tours with various groups in town which eventually led him to the Salem Witch Walk. “In order to help explain witchcraft to tourists I began to educate myself,” he recalled. “That is when it dawned on me that I was a Witch.”

The tour guide in his mid-thirties believes that the hysteria of 1692 somehow laid the foundation for real Witches three hundred years later. What are the lessons learned from the Salem witch trials according to Vallor? “Don’t believe everything you hear or judge a book by its cover,” he said. “And, most importantly, think for yourself.”

Wicked Salem: Exploring Lingering Lore and Legendsby Sam Baltrusis
May 1, 2019
Genre: Ghosts, Hauntings, Local History, Salem, Haunted History
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
ISBN: 978-1-4930-3711-7
ASIN: 978-1-4930-3712-4
Number of pages: 264
Word Count: 61,500
Cover Artist: Globe Pequot Press
Something Wicked This Way Comes

It’s no surprise that the historic Massachusetts seaport’s history is checkered with violence and heinous crimes. Originally called Naumkeag, Salem means “peace.” However, as its historical legacy dictates, the city was anything but peaceful during the late seventeenth century.

Did the reputed Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, strike in Salem? Evidence supports the possibility of a copy-cat murder. From the recently pinpointed gallows where innocents were hanged for witchcraft to the murder house on Essex Street where Capt. Joseph White was bludgeoned to death and then stabbed thirteen times in the heart, Sam Baltrusis explores the ghost lore and the people behind the tragic events that turned the “Witch City” into a hot spot that has become synonymous with witches, rakes, and rogues.

Amazon-BN-Globe Pequot Press

Excerpt:
What is it about the sleepy New England city that engenders itself to history’s witches, rakes and rogues?

Salem, Massachusetts suffers a bit of an identity disorder. There are two versions of the so-called “Witch City” that have symbiotically etched itself into the collective unconscious. There’s the iconic, blood-stained Salem that boasted a sadistic sorority of witch-hanging zealots in the late 1600s. And then there is the modern, witch-friendly spectacle that welcomes thousands of supporters into its coven of commercialism every October.

It’s a tale of two Salems.

As far as the paranormal is concerned, the city is considered to be hallowed ground. However, based on my personal experience as a local historian and tour guide, Salem has a love-hate relationship with its ghosts. Why?

"The city has a long history of not wanting to get wrapped up in commercializing its witch history," explained Tim Weisberg, host of the radio show Spooky Southcoast and researcher with Destination America's Haunted Towns. "It's something they've only really embraced over the past couple of decades. There's still a bit of an 'old guard' in the city that doesn't want to see anyone capitalizing on witches, ghosts or things of that nature.”

As Salem’s on-air expert for the national Haunted Towns TV show, I helped Weisberg hunt for locations with ties to the witch trials of 1692. It was tough. “As they've let some of that guard down and television shows have come in, it's been my experience that the 'powers that be’ who control many of the allegedly haunted and historic locations have been disillusioned with the way productions have come in and treated its history,” Weisberg told me. “At least, that's what I heard in the rejections I received from certain locations when attempting to get permission to film Haunted Towns."

Known for its annual Halloween “Haunted Happenings” gathering, it’s no surprise that the historic Massachusetts seaport is considered to be one of New England’s most haunted destinations. With city officials emphasizing its not-so-dark past, tourists from all over the world seem to focus on the wicked intrigue surrounding the 1692 witch trials.

Originally called Naumkeag, Salem means “peace.” However, as its historical legacy dictates, the city was anything but peaceful during the late seventeenth century. In fact, when accused witch and landowner Giles Corey was pressed to death over a two-day period, he allegedly cursed the sheriff and the city. Over the years, his specter has allegedly been spotted preceding disasters in Salem, including the fire that destroyed most of the downtown area in June 1914. Based on my research, a majority of the hauntings conjured up in Salem over the city’s tumultuous four-hundred-year-old history have ties to disaster, specifically the one-hundred-year-old fire that virtually annihilated the once prosperous North Shore seaport.

Cursed? Salem is full of secrets.

About the Author:
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Sam Baltrusis, author of Wicked Salem: Exploring Lingering Lore and Legends, has penned eleven historical-based ghost books including Ghost of Salem: Haunts of the Witch City. He has been featured on several national TV shows including Destination America's Haunted Towns, the Travel Channel's Haunted USA on Salem and served as Boston's paranormal expert on the Biography Channel's Haunted Encounters.

During the summer of 2019, he will be featured on the one-hundredth episode of A Haunting airing on the Travel Channel. Baltrusis is a sought-after lecturer who speaks at dozens of paranormal-related events scattered throughout New England, including an author discussion at the Massachusetts State House and paranormal conventions that he produced called the Plymouth ParaCon in 2018 and the Berkshire’s MASS ParaCon in 2019. In the past, he has worked for VH1, MTV.com, Newsweek and ABC Radio and as a regional stringer for the New York Times.

Book Review: Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places

by Colin Dickey
October 3, 2017
Publisher: Penguin Books
330 pages

ASN: B01BD1SUA6
ISBN: 9781101980200
Colin Dickey is on the trail of America's ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and "zombie homes," Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places. Some have established reputations as "the most haunted mansion in America," or "the most haunted prison"; others, like the haunted Indian burial grounds in West Virginia, evoke memories from the past our collective nation tries to forget.

With boundless curiosity, Dickey conjures the dead by focusing on questions of the living—how do we, the living, deal with stories about ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed, for whatever reason, haunted? Paying attention not only to the facts behind a ghost story but also to how changes to those facts are made—and why those changes are made—Dickey paints a version of American history left out of the textbooks, one of the things left undone, crimes left unsolved.
Spellbinding, scary, and wickedly insightful, Ghostland discovers the past we are most afraid to speak of aloud in the bright light of day is the same past that tends to linger in the ghost stories we whisper in the dark.
It hit me as I began to read this book, that I had checked out the hardcover version from the library. It had been a shock to find my name in the part about Shockoe Bottom in Richmond, Virginia, and I remember him interviewing me a couple of years before. This is not a traditional book of ghost stories. If that is what you're looking for, you will be disappointed. The author offered a perspective on how ghost stories emerge, develop, and change according to various social, political, or economic contexts. Although I do not agree with him on some of it, it was a new way of trying to explain why maybe ghosts haunt. It would have been nice if he would investigate these places first hand, as I doubt he had done at most (maybe except where he lives at), as I know he interviewed me through the Internet. It would have been interesting to see if he would have different theories in being in the real places first hand.

Still, this being Halloween and the time of ghosts and things that go bump in the night, this still would be an interesting read for paranormal fans.

I gave Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places 4 ghostly sheep.

Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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Colin Dickey grew up in San Jose, California, a few miles from the Winchester Mystery House, the most haunted house in America. As a writer, speaker, and academic, he has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He’s a regular contributor to the LA Review of Books and Lapham’s Quarterly, and is the co-editor (with Joanna Ebenstein) of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. He is also a member of the Order of the Good Death, a collective of artists, writers, and death industry professionals interested in improving the Western world’s relationship with mortality. With a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Southern California, he is an associate professor of creative writing at National University.

Book Review: Southern Spirit Guide's Haunted Alabama: A Guide to Ghostlore, Legends and Haunted Places in the Heart of Dixie by Lewis O. Powell IV

Southern Spirit Guide's Haunted Alabama: A Guide to Ghostlore, Legends and Haunted Places in the Heart of Dixie
Author: Lewis O. Powell IV
Publisher: Southern Spirit Press
ASN: B016CJLGEQ
October 7, 2015
Ghosts and spirits punctuate the landscape of Alabama from Albertville to Wilsonville, Auburn to Tuscaloosa, and Birmingham to Dauphin Island. Southern Spirit Guide's Haunted Alabama is a county-by-county guide to ghostlore throughout Alabama. Utilizing the most reliable and up-to-date resources, this guide covers the history and hauntings of 300 haunted locales, complete with addresses and sources. Explore haunted plantations, mills with dark pasts, roadside revenants, spooklights, and creepy cemeteries deep in the Heart of Dixie.

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I’ve read the blog, Southern Spirit Guide, for quite a while now, where author Lewis O. Powell IV blogs about ghost stories and legends of the southern United States. Many of us think it was about time that he write a ghost book about some of those Southern spooks. Which he did, released as Southern Spirit Guide’s Haunted Alabama: A Guide to Ghostlore, Legends and Haunted Places in the Heart of Dixie. Tales set particularly in the state of Alabama. Citing the authors and paranormal investigators who have written books and blogs about the various cities and counties where ghostly events have happened, he does inform readers to check these authors and their books especially, if they wanted more information on the hauntings than he had written. His is more of an armchair version of citing these stories, than going to these sites directly. One of the stories that intrigued me to check out further for myself was the mummy exhibited for a time at Bessemer Hall of the History Museum in Bessemer. A tale of murder, love, betrayal, and suicide, all ending in the murderer’s corpse being sent to a funeral home where it was forgotten and put in storage; the body grew mummified over time. National Geographic even produced a documentary about the mummy in 2002. The remains were eventually cremated. But paranormal activity in the building are possibly attributed to the mummy. Is it? It might be a possible trip on my bucket list of investigations to find out!

Besides this story, there are many stories about haunted theatres, libraries, cemeteries, battlefields (of course, it is the South and the Civil War was fought here as much as elsewhere in the South!), a furnace, hotels, roads, bridges, bed and breakfasts, homes, bookstores, colleges and schools, and many other places. Alabama is undead and kicking, with plenty of ghosts. The only disappointment I had with the book is this is more a reciting of stories and legends told. Maybe Mr. Powell’s next book will have him visiting the places and letting us hear what he experienced and what his thoughts would be on the matter.

For the paranormal investigator looking for spots and legends to investigate (with permission, something Mr. Powell does stress) or people who love to read ghosts stories, and then plan to explore the places, or maybe they just plan to visit spooky Alabama from an armchair, this is the book for you. What are you waiting for? The dead are waiting to welcome you to an Alabama most tourists never see.

I give Southern Spirit Guide's Haunted Alabama: A Guide to Ghostlore, Legends and Haunted Places in the Heart of Dixie 4 ‘keep the lights on!’ sheep.

Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:
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Coming from an old Southern family, Lewis O. Powell IV grew up hearing ghost stories told by family and friends. After he heard a storyteller relate tales from Kathryn Tucker Windham’s 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey and 13 Georgia Ghosts and Jeffrey, he was hooked on Southern ghosts. From childhood into adulthood, Lewis collected “ghost books,” which eventually comprised his Southern Spirit Library.

Lewis graduated from Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia with a BFA in Theatre. After college, he was asked to edit and contribute to F. Clason Kyle’s book, In Order of Appearance, a history of performers at Columbus’ historic and haunted Springer Opera House. He soon began dreaming of writing his own book. In 2010 he began blogging about Southern ghosts with his blog, the Southern Spirit Guide (http://southernspiritguide.blogspot.com). This is his first book. He resides in West Georgia.

Book Review: Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia & The Tri-Cities Area by Pamela K. Kinney

Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area
by Pamela K. Kinney September 30, 2015

Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Schiffer
Travel to Petersburg, Virginia, and the surrounding areas of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Prince George, Dinwiddie, and nearby Ettrick-Matoaca, Enon, and Chester to discover what spirits, monsters, UFOs, and legends await the unwary. Why are the Union and Confederate spirits still fighting the Civil War in the battlefields? Who is the lady in blue who haunts Weston Plantation House? Learn what the phantoms at Peter Jones Trading Post will do to keep from being photographed. Drink tea with runaway slaves still hiding on the top floor above the Blue Willow Tea Room. Are Edgar Allan Poe and his bride still on their honeymoon at Hiram Haines Coffee and Ale House? Why does the Goatman stalk young lovers? Meet the ghosts of Violet Bank Museum that greet guests at the house. Hauntingly active as they share space with the living, the dead refuse to give up their undead residency.

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I've read a couple of Pamela Kinney's non-fiction books about haunted places in Virginia and they are really interesting and fun. I am not a believer of ghosts, but if I personally experienced something I might be swayed. But that doesn't mean I don't love reading about all the history, tales and first-hand accounts about paranormal events.

This book focuses on Petersburg, VA and the surrounding areas. I had no idea about all the history of this area. Pamela does a great job of giving detailed facts about the cities and specific buildings. I can't even imagine how much research went into the book. She also includes folk tales associated with the areas as well as talking to residents about their knowledge.

She was only able to give histories and maybe some interviews about some of the buildings because they were private residences, but there are also detailed accounts of the investigations she was allowed to conduct. These were fascinating. Kinney used various instruments to communicate with possible spirits. A ghost box was used a lot and I would love to see this in action first-hand.

If you love history, the paranormal, and touring haunted areas, then this is a great book to have. Information about where to find each place and how to contact someone about it is included.

5 "GET OUT!" Sheep

SharonS

About the Author:

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Author of Haunted Richmond, Haunted Richmond II, Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths, and True Tales, and Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle: Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, & Other Haunted Locations, Pamela K. Kinney has written fiction that enables her readers to journey to worlds of fantasy, go beyond the stars, and dive into the vortex of terror. One of her stories proved heart-stopping enough to be runner up for 2013 WSFA Small Press Award. As Sapphire Phelan, she also writes bestselling paranormal romance with dark heroes and heroines with bite!

Book Review: Social Media Overload by Corey Perlman

Social Media Overload
by Corey Perlman
Publisher: Garnet Group Publishing
ISBN: 9780991540402 ASIN: B00JV3BZHO
April 4, 2014. You Don't Have to Be on Twitter! Or any other social media site that's not generating results for your business.

Here are some critical topics addressed in this book:

• How to find out where your customers and prospects are spending time online.
• Ways to outperform your competition on Google.
• Common Website mistakes that negatively impact your credibility.
• How not to allow your Social Media sites to die on the vine.
• Create long-standing relationships with clients using the power of Facebook.
• Advanced features on LinkedIn to prospect and earn referrals.
• Direct people to your Sweet Spot instead of Selling on Social Media.

Guest chapters by Jay Baer (Twitter), Erik Qualman (YouTube), Heather Lutze (Social Search), Terry Brock (Klout), and more!This book will serve as a roadmap for you and your team on how to increase leads, strengthen credibility, build long-term relationships, and win referral business on the web.

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This is a nonfiction book on how you can use social media for your business (from small business stores to authors and more). It provides guidance on using social media, the context for using it effectively: identifying your audience and other suggestions for digital marketing, email marketing, and some others. Reading it will help you to determine where your customers and prospects are spending their time online. How you can outperform your competition on Google, website mistakes that can hinder you getting your customers, how you shouldn’t let our social media sites expire and creating long-standing relationships with Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. This book can be the roadmap you might need if you feel your social media is fizzing out. Besides the author there are also guest chapters by Jay Baer (Twitter), Erik Qualman (YouTube), Heather Lutze (Social Search), and Terry Brock (Klout).

Though it will resonate with those who are regular small business people, I think authors, artists and even actors can use this to help strengthen their social media performance and get those prospective customers to purchase their book, art, or even help the beginner actor to get their fans. And Social Media can be confusing for the most intelligent of people and insightful and relevant and this book will assist the person to use their social media smarter and better.

I give Social Media Overload 5 sheep

By Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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YouTube-LinkedIn-blog

Corey Perlman is an entrepreneur, author and nationally-recognized social media expert. His book, eBoot Camp, became an Amazon.com bestseller in every major business category and received global attention with distribution in both China and India. Corey’s company, eBoot Camp, Inc., provides digital marketing services to small and mid-size businesses. A member of the National Speaker’s Association (NSA), Corey conducts his critically acclaimed Social Media for Business Keynote to audiences around the world. He’s the proud father of a 3-year-old daughter who has already tweeted, has a youtube channel and asked for a Mark Zuckerberg doll for her birthday. The apple truly doesn’t fall far from the tree!